Yesterday was truly a gala day in New Orleans. All business was suspended. Many of the stores were not opened even for the early morning hours, the city devoting itself to the ceremonies of the opening day of the Exposition. Many buildings were handsomely decorated. Bunting was freely displayed in all directions. At an early hour the streets were filled with people crowding to the different railroad and steamboat lines to the Exposition grounds, and by 12 o'clock it is estimated that 50,000 people were on the grounds. If the attendance at opening day is to be taken as any manner of augury for the future, then will the Exposition be a grand success. Music Hall, platform, chair seating in front of the platform and galleries were filled to their utmost capacity, and while there was no appreciable diminution in the crowds on the grounds, this crowd in Music Hall to hear the speeches and listen to the music could not have been less than 12,000. Professor Aquin's band of fifty pieces, assisted by several hundred voices, added much to the eclat of the occasion. Their performances were enthusiastically received and encored again and again.

The grounds were in good order, and the spaces in the buildings were allotted weeks ago; but the hammers and saws of the exhibitors, as is usual in similar expositions, were heard on all sides. Possibly two weeks hence may see some of the exhibitors still getting in position. The management have caused the space in Horticultural Hall, in which the grand fruit display of last year was made, to be laid out as a winter garden, and very tastefully. Many very fine plants, both tropical and semi-tropical, are used in its formation. It will doubtless prove very attractive to visitors. But of the policy of thus giving up the effect of one grand concentrated fruit display, and by so doing forcing a dozen or more fruit displays in different State exhibits, I leave for others to speak. Last year's fruit display was grand and very attractive. The divided fruit displays by the different States and territories possibly may be equally attractive. In the large greenhouse attached to Horticultural Hall our New Orleans florists have some fine displays.

New Orleans, Nov. nth.